Keith Giffen Now on He-Man

Keith Giffen is taking over the He-Man miniseries DC is publishing. I actually enjoyed the first issue quite a bit, and frankly Giffen taking over the writing from James Robinson just makes me giddier. The first issue established that Adam had no idea he was He-Man and Skeletor was running things.

Honestly, it was a good set up. And while it’s pretty curious that Robinson has left the book, Giffen has stepped into other people’s books. Besides, he’s got the right attitude:

I’m writing this as if they gave me Conan.

Oh, and he’s also doing some of the pencils, if that wasn’t enough. But this has way more promise than just Keith Giffen’s sensibility on an ’80s cliche.

Here’s the thing. If you haven’t settled down and tried to watch an episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in a while, go do that. Be ready to see something baffling.

Seriously, the show is a bizarre van art science fantasy, even by the standards of the 1980s. Lord knows what drugs they were doing at Mattel and Filmation, but whatever they were, they were scary. Honestly, He-Man is a cultural rarity: While there was no shortage whatsoever of science fantasy pulp, especially after Star Wars, the fact that something like this was not only popular, but a stripped cartoon series aimed at children, is pretty weird when you stop to think about it. You’d have a hard time selling a show like this now with The Avengers making a billion dollars and Batman winning Oscars.

And they’re letting Keith Giffen loose on it. A man who is not only a smart-ass but who really enjoys writing insane pulp fantasies even as he deconstructs them.

So, DC, do I just send you my ATM card, or do you want all my money on the installment plan?